This website is a forum for research and scholarship on early German film culture and theory. Building on the Promise of Cinemasourcebook, the site offers an archive of digitized film-theoretical books and film journals before 1933, links to films from the period, new translations of documents, as well as suggestions for teaching Weimar cinema through the lens of theory. There are also illustrations of film-technological devices and links to extensive online resources. In addition, the site features original essays by scholars that engage with early German film theory, and a lexicon of media-historical concepts and constellations. Materials relating to the sourcebook itself are found here. We are keen to bring together in one place all relevant materials (books, journals, illustrations) that deal with German film theory in the broadest sense. If you know of online sources and resources that are missing on our site, please contact the editors. Any and all contributions to our online research community are welcome.

The Promise of Cinema: German Film Theory, 1907-1933 is available through the publisher, University of California Press, and Amazon.com .

Search for:

NEWS

The Promise of Cinema wins the 41st annual Limina Award for Best International Film Studies Book, awarded by the Filmforum Udine-Gorizia in association with Consulta Universitaria del Cinema and Cinema & Cie: International Film Studies Journal

The Promise of Cinema wins an Award of Distinction from the Society of Cinema and Media Studies

Promise of Cinema included in the Best Film Books of 2016 at Huffington Post